Some of the most consequential conflicts in oncology and medicine overall are not financial; these remain poorly defined and weakly regulated. Here we offer a policy-relevant definition and examine how reputation, ambition, ideology and institutional loyalty can shape research, guidelines, policy and hiring decisions. We argue for structural safeguards to preserve trust in medicine.
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Acknowledgements
We thank D. Resnik from NIEHS, NIH, USA, for his review of an earlier version of this manuscript.
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The authors declare no financial competing interests. Both authors have long engaged academically with conflicts of interest in medicine, which might be relevant to the perspectives expressed.
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Niraula, S., Tannock, I.F. Non-financial conflicts of interest. Nat Rev Clin Oncol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-025-01073-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-025-01073-3
